


Separate Ways

by ghoulisssh



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 15:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19112947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoulisssh/pseuds/ghoulisssh
Summary: Joel doesn't know how much Ellie has lost.





	Separate Ways

**Author's Note:**

> my very first fic posted on here. i hope you guys enjoy!

“You have no idea what loss is.”  


~ * ~  


Morning light spills in through the scaffolding and fills the dilapidated room. Despite the early hour of dawn, there’s already a heat rising off of the brickwork flooring and unconstructed walls; sweat clings to Ellie’s skin. She swings the pipe and it connects to a stray terracotta pot. It explodes into shards. She targets a second, a third, a fourth, until there is nothing left but jagged chunks of ceramic clay laying amongst the bodies of runners. Blood spilled across the dusty floor and filled the site with a metallic bite.  


With all of the draining energy from her body, Ellie throws the bar and she can hear it crash across the room.  


"There’s some more stuff over there that you can break.” Riley’s face is pensive. Her arms are over her knees and she’s letting the bite on her hand drip.  
  


Ellie sinks next to Riley.  


“What’re we gonna do?” she wipes her face; blood and sweat smear across her temple and hot tears spill down her cheeks. She looks at the weeping wound on her forearm.  


Ellie’s lungs swell with her short breaths. Running through clothing store with its lively displays and spraying Riley with water, bounding the hallways and the backrooms of the mall, leaping over the gap between the scaffolding - Ellie was exhausted.  


Riley takes a deep breath and straightens up.  


“The way I see it, we got two options. Option one,” she inspects the pistol with that same solemn look. Then she brings herself to look at Ellie. “We take the easy way out. It’s quick and painless”  


Ellie does not look any further than the corner of her eye. Tears clear a trail through the blood and sweat on her skin. _It’s quick and painless_. Ellie looks at the bite on her forearm; teeth marks are rooted deep into the flesh and the stream of red down her forearm seems never ending.  


“I’m not a fan of option one,” Riley sits the pistol down. The two share a look - they are both coated in perspiration, gore, and tears.  
Ellie is the first one to look away.  


“Two. We fight.” it isn’t a question - it’s barely a suggestion - it sounds more like a statement. Riley looks into the distance again.  


“Fight for what?” Ellie’s in near disbelief. They _had_ fought - they tried to survive - and in the end, they failed. What was left? “We’re gonna turn into one of those things.”  


_Those things_. They would become one of those things. Fungus would split their flesh and bloom across their skin; it sprout out of their brain and a plate would crawl out of their eye sockets. Would they feel it? Could they feel it? They were alive, yes, but were they alive or were they a-  


“There are a million ways we should’ve died before today.” Riley speaks after a brief silence and pulls Ellie out of her racing thoughts. “And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight… for every second we get to spend with each other.”  


_With each other_. The whole night had been spent with each other. They had traveled across the rooftops in the small hours of the night. They had been soaked in the summer rain. They caught up as they went through the ruined remnants of apartments. They had shared Winston's whiskey, they had set the mall alight with a life it hadn’t known in 25 years. They had shared puns, taken photos. Once their clothes dried from the rain, they had drenched them with water guns. They had danced.  


Then they had kissed.  


“Whether it’s two minutes…” Riley trails off. “Or two days…”  


Two days. Ellie wipes a wet palm over her forearm and smears more blood across her pale skin. She couldn’t help but wonder - who would turn first? Would she turn first? Would the fungus sprouting across her brain make her attack her friend? Would Riley turn first? Question after question with no answer or closure races through Ellie’s mind.  
More tears fall from her green eyes.  


“We don’t give that up.” Riley’s looking at Ellie now. “I don’t want to give that up.”  


Ellie can imagine the growths already; red, stringy veins would press against her skin, and boily, fungal-growths would burst through.  


“My vote… let’s just wait it out,” Riley looks at Ellie, but she looks away.. “You know, we can… be all poetic and just lose our minds together.”  


“What’s option three?”  


Riley can hardly bear to look at Ellie any longer.  


“Sorry.” 

~*~  


“You’re right…” Joel’s southern drawl is low. “You’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your dad.”  


Ellie can feel tears gather in her eyes; they nearly spill into her lashes and her throat hurts. Joel isn’t suggesting - he is stating it.  


“We are going our separate ways.”


End file.
